Commonwealth Club short-circuited over public power measure, Prop. H

CITY INSIDER

Heather Knight, Audrey Cooper, Marisa Lagos

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Photo: Chip East, Reuters

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Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, participates in a panel discussion during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 25, 2008. Established by former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2005, the event is designed to bring donors together with people in need to try to solve global problems. REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES) less

Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, participates in a panel discussion during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 25, 2008. Established by former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2005, the event ... more

Photo: Chip East, Reuters

Commonwealth Club short-circuited over public power measure, Prop. H

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Public power play: The apolitical, revered Commonwealth Club has found itself stuck in the middle of a tug-of-war over one of San Francisco's most controversial ballot measures - Proposition H, which would put the city on a path toward public power and set clean energy mandates.

It started Monday, when the Bay Area chapter of the Sierra Club, which helped write Prop. H, publicly challenged Mayor Gavin Newsomto a debate on the measure and said the Commonwealth Club had agreed to host the debate at noon on Oct. 23.

Eric Jaye - Newsom's chief political strategist and campaign consultant for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which is fighting the proposition - promptly got on the phone to the Commonwealth Club. He told The Chronicle the debate challenge was "a classic campaign tactic" and emblematic of how the proponents are "casually untruthful."

The Commonwealth Club promptly e-mailed Room 200 to say it had withdrawn its offer to host the debate. The e-mail contained an apology for contributing to "inappropriate pressure" on the mayor to debate, pressure that "clouded the free and open atmosphere that the club maintains for its public discussions."

John Rizzo, political chair of the local Sierra Club, said the Commonwealth Club always knew the mayor hadn't committed. "I don't see how we can put pressure on the mayor. That's silly," he said.

By the way, new campaign finance filings show the PG&E-funded committee to oppose Prop. H has spent $5.4 million so far, with a lot of it funding the myriad mailers filling voters' mailboxes. "They probably used up a whole forest to mail the propaganda," Rizzo said.

- Heather Knight

Hands to yourself: The city health department is starting a public awareness campaign today with possibly the ickiest slogan ever - "Infect Me Not."

Officials began the $390,000 campaign because people polled in focus groups expressed an overwhelming desire to tell their co-workers, friends and others to keep their germs to themselves.

So for every time you wanted to tell your colleague to wash his hands after using the bathroom, every time you wanted to yell at a Muni passenger who should cover his mouth when he coughs, this PSA's for you.

The television and radio ads will run throughout the fall. Posters will also be plastered in BART stations and on city buses. The campaign will remind people to regularly wash their hands, stay home from work when sick and - we're not making this one up - avoid touching wild animals.

According to the Department of Public Health, some viruses and bacteria can live for two hours or longer on surfaces like cafeteria tables and doorknobs.

We don't even want to think about the guy's keyboard in the other cubicle.

All's well that ends well: We told you last week that Civic Center Plaza was unwittingly double-booked when city officials decided to keep growing a food garden there through November.

The problem was a conflict between an Oct. 29 corporate event approved and paid for months ago and the mayor's Victory Garden, which was only supposed to stay for a few weeks but was extended at Newsom's request.

Apparently no one told the company it was being displaced by tomatoes and green beans - the item about the garden extension was news to those good people.

According to Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard, there is a happy ending. The corporate event has agreed to move its tent to another area of the plaza, and the mayor's office is working with party planners "to ensure the event goes off without a hitch."

- Marisa Lagos

Strange bedfellows: Normally, people like Jennifer Friedenbachand Steve Falkare on opposite sides of the table, if they are sitting down together at all.

The group is poised to recommend that Newsom move forward on a number of measures meant to make streets safer, including more supported-employment programs, a year-round center that helps homeless people access services, and a change to city law so the police chief can establish temporary zones where drug crimes would carry extra penalties.

The group hasn't yet agreed on some more controversial programs, including the establishment of zones where crimes like public urination and panhandling are enforced more aggressively.

Considering this group includes people who usually fight against one another (law enforcement leaders, city department heads and activists), it's fairly amazing they're at the same table at all. The catch is that there's been no commitment of any money to implement the recommendations. And some novel ideas have also been thrown out because the group is supposed to recommend measures that can be implemented within a year.

Stay tuned: The next, and final, meeting is scheduled for Oct. 21.

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- Marisa Lagos

Check out the blog: Find extra items at the City Insider blog. Read about heroic school bus drivers and find out which supervisor is pushing for recognition of "Conflict Resolution Day."

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